Exploring New Inroads into Clinical Trial Diversity: Where Do We Go From Here?

Ricki is an award-winning seasoned marketing veteran that has transformed her strategic acumen and vast consumer marketing expertise into breast cancer advocacy. Ricki co-founded and serves as CEO of TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance to address Black Breast Cancer as a unique and special disease state, with the overall goal of reducing the mortality rate for Black women. Ricki founded and serves as co-host for “The Doctor Is In,” a weekly live breast cancer advocacy web series on the BlackDoctor.org Facebook page that reaches over 3 million viewers. She is a founding member of #BlackDataMatters, in partnership with Citizen, The Center for Health Care Innovation and Morehouse School of Medicine to encourage and elevate the importance of Black Women participating in clinical trial research. In January 2022, she started the When We Tri(al) Movement to change the game on Black women participating in clinical trials to improve outcomes for Black women with breast cancer with culturally humble and provocative communication that has resulted in thousands of Black women entering clinical trial research. She also actively assists pharmaceutical companies in revamping and designing their clinical trial recruiting materials. In support of her breast cancer work, Ricki serves on the Board of Trustees for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation where she chairs the marketing committee. She is a board member for the Center for Healthcare Innovation, and serves on the National Minority Quality Forum Scientific Advisory Board for Project Moonshot. She is a founding member of the American Cancer Society’s National Breast Cancer Roundtable Steering Committee. Prior to founding TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, Ricki was the Founder, and served as President and Thought Leader of DOVE Marketing, a marketing agency with a mission to deliver iconic thinking, strategic problem solving and creative genius to clients seeking profitable business results. Fairley is a seasoned marketer with 35+ years of marketing experience including 20 years in brand management at Johnson & Johnson, Nabisco, Reckitt & Colman, and The Coca-Cola Company, and over 15 years in agency leadership encompassing strategic planning and consulting for numerous Fortune 500 companies. She was passionate about helping clients identify marketplace opportunities, establish insight-based objectives and strategies, and build results-driven campaigns with resonating creative. Ricki holds the Leadership Award from the Creative Thinking Association of America and was named a Top 100 Marketer by Black Enterprise Magazine in February 2011.

Clay Alspach is a principal at Leavitt Partners specializing in federal health care policy and advocacy. At Leavitt Partners, Clay helps lead the Federal Insight and Advocacy Practice Area as well as a number of alliances. Before joining Leavitt Partners, Clay served as Chief Health Counsel for Chairman Fred Upton of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. At the Committee, Clay spearheaded a number of legislative initiatives, including FDASIA, MACRA, DQSA, PAHPRA, and 21st Century Cures Act. Clay received his B.A. from the University of Richmond and J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Gary Puckrein is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF), a non-profit healthcare research, education, and advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, DC. The mission of NMQF is to reduce patient risk by assuring optimal care for all. NMQF conducts evidence-based, data-driven initiatives to eliminate premature death and preventable illness. NMQF’s vision is an American health services research, delivery, and financing system whose operating principle is to reduce patient risk for amenable morbidity and mortality while improving quality of life. Dr. Puckrein received his doctorate from Brown University.